«He who has been holy shit-scrubbed sick is the greatest of all the titans of theology. I have met great people in my life, writers, philosophers, scientists, some of them - the fewest - have become dear to me, I enjoy their company. I know how to appreciate their works and honour them when they deserve it, but my moral appreciation goes only, solely and exclusively, to those who stood by the side of the seriously and terminally ill and cared for them without any grief, with love and devotion.».
Pericles Moustakis directs the experiential narrative of Stavros Zoumboulakis, «My Sister». Performed by Dora Stylianesi and Alkis Zoupas.
Through his sister's epilepsy, which marked her life and, in another way, his own, Stavros Zoumboulakis wanted to tell us about illness, pain, joy, faith and above all about kindness and love. A text that is ultimately comforting.
The author offers us a highly confessional and deeply personal narrative, which, through conversations with Vail, Levinas and Camus, reaches us as a major theological commentary, an existential and at the same time universal questioning on the question of love, faith and illness.
The disarming, confessional simplicity of Zoumboulakis' narrative pierces the centre of the heart like an arrow and causes an inner shudder, ultimately leading to redemption.
Direction-Capture: Pericles Moustakis
Stage design - costumes: Niki Psichogiou
Lights: Haris Dallas
Musical director.
Assistant director: Matilda Toubourou
Photos: Matilda Toubourou and Haris Dallas
Production: Exercise Theatre Company
They play: Dora Stylianesi & Alkis Zoupas
«My sister, her illness and my relationship with her determined the way I see things, how I judge, prioritize, evaluate. Camus told us that the main, the only, philosophical question is the question of suicide, because it raises the question of the value or the worthlessness of life.. My sister's story led me, from my teenage years, to believe that the main philosophical question is the disease. Illness raises, in the most acute way, the question of the meaning of life, of God, of relationship with others, of bliss, of joy. I don't believe at all in all this metaphysics of pain nor in its purifying function, I only believe that anyone who has not been hurt will inevitably become a shallow and more or less foolish person. But then again, anyone who has not tasted joy is a sick man, who can easily become envious, gloating and resentful. These praises of pain are made by people who have probably not been in as much pain as they say. Illness, yours and others», leads you to appreciate the value of the most common and everyday things in life and at the same time relativize, without zeroing out, the importance of others that are considered important." - Stavros Zoumboulakis
The book ‘My Sister’ is published by ‘Polis’ Publications.
For the performance they wrote:
«It's one of the biggest successes of this year, and one of the most unexpected. Stavros Zoumboulakis« book gave Pericles Moustakis the opportunity to return to that genre of theatre with which he had been involved from the very beginning of his long career: the »theatre of the sanctuary". He is probably one of the few, along with Terzopoulos and Papaconstantinou, who attempt to deepen the world of the scene, so that it reaches the sources of a performative and revealing expression. His research, of course, derives from the corresponding laboratory testimonies of the Polish Theatre - a scene poor and pure, which will asceticize by recalling the cry and the bush of a lost sacred place.» GREGORY IOANNIDIS, The Newspaper of the Editors, 3/2/2020
«The delivery of the speech had a chilling distance from any realism. The speech sounded with the dryness of death and the darkness of the unconscious, where the living meets the dead. The dead Yula was giving her living toothy brother the word, making him dig into his soul and turn grief into words.
Dora Stylianesi, an old collaborator of Moustakis and with knowledge of his method, an actress with a strong acting ability, undertook a titanic task, to interpret the monologue of tremendous length in an undiminished, constant tonality and with her face frozen in a fixed expression as a mask. A difficult interpretation that was perfectly executed, causing a holy shudder to the viewer» - MARO ROSEFIELDS, Magazine «THE MAN» issue 1, March 2020
LAST PERFORMANCES
until 28 November
DAYS & HOURS
Thursday - Friday - Saturday 21:00 & Sunday 20:00
DURATION
100 ‘ (without break)
TICKET PRICES
15 € general admission, 12 € student-unemployed, 8 € disabled and disabled persons
Pre-sale https://www.viva.gr/tickets/theater/i-aderfi-mou-skin-periklis-moustakis-bios.
For telephone reservations, you can call on weekdays 11:00 - 19:00 at 210 3425335.
